1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to automotive vehicles having a rear body closure, such as a hatch back or trunk lid, and more specifically to such a body closure having an internal storage compartment.
2. Background Art
Some types of electrically powered vehicles, such as plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles, use a charging cord to connect the vehicle to an off-board power supply when it is necessary to charge/re-charge the on-board batteries. In some cases, the charging cord may be carried on board the vehicle so that the cord is available for use anywhere that charging of the batteries is desired. If the vehicle charging port or receptacle is located on an exterior panel of the vehicle it may be advantageous to be able to disconnect the cord from the receptacle when it is not being used and store it in the vehicle at some location remote from the receptacle.
It is important to provide secure storage for the charging cord when it is not in use, and also to ensure that the vehicle operator has easy access to the cord when needed. If the charging cord is stored loose in the trunk or other cargo compartment of the vehicle, it may be difficult to find when needed, particularly if there are other objects in the trunk or cargo compartment that may be hiding or blocking access to the cord. Even if the charging cord is stored in a tray or sub-compartment within the vehicle cargo compartment, access to that area may be blocked by other objects and so require removal of those other objects in order to reach the charging cord.
JP 2009136108A teaches a vehicle having a permanently-attached charging cord that is stored in a compartment integrated with the rear bumper of the vehicle.
The compartment is accessed by a hinged door. Why is this different from storing a non-permanently-attached, completely-removable cord in the same place, and putting a license plate on the door?                Our door will have a spring to bias it closed. This wouldn't work with the permanent cord, if the door snapped shut it would pinch and/or damage the cord.        Our compartment/door is in/or a hatch or trunk rather than a bumper. This utilizes otherwise unused space between inner and outer panels of the hatch/trunk, and allows the bumper design to be optimized for crash damage mitigation.        